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Hi there,
I am from the Netherlands and traded for a living between 2001 and 2003. My product then was the FTI, future on the AEX. I had no tactics at all, just listening to my feelings and in that time it worked quiet well. Right now I am trying to figure out if you can make some money by trading the FDax. This is because of the lack of activity in our Dutch future. Untill now my days balance between euforia and disaster. I am working hard to find out what my strategie must be but times have changed big time.

Having grappled with my fair share serious issues, I agree with Big Mike, to delve deeper in your backtesting method.

Here's another thought: tick charts are great (I trade off them myself) but they're prone corrupt/missing data. I would venture that the difference you're seeing between backtested results (based on complete historical data) and live trading is due in part to costly slips, but also missing ticks. Try a different data feed and things could improve.

Best wishes,
HT

mogplus8

Hi All,
I live in Sydney, Australia. I have been learning to trade for about five years now. Only started trading real money about a year ago and did quite well initially. Then somehow things went pear shaped and I did my dough big time.
I use Ninjatrader, and developed a fully automated strategy that worked very well in sim, but seems to not work so well in real money. I was averaging about ten percent per week profit in sim, and doing nearly as well with real money when I first started. That only lasted a few months though, then I had a horror week when I lost fifty percent of my capital. The next week I lost another ten percent. Then I went back to sim to try to work out what went wrong, and I have to say I really don't understand it. I can optimise my system to produce great results for the previous two weeks, but then when I trade it live (in sim) it goes down the gurgler. Feels like backtesting is a waste of time as results don't seem to translate into real performance.

I trade the fdax on a 144 tick chart, one contract (can't afford any more than that...) and yes I do check how the system is going every morning (in my time zone the fdax trades from 4:30pm to 6am). So why didn't I cut my losses in that horror week? Because my trading plan is to let the system trade all week without interference. It had lost and come good in the past, so I figured I should stick to my plan and not panic. Turns out I should have panicked. I'll have to put that into my trading plan so I'll know next time...

Interested in all aspects of trading, and looking forward to reading more about other traders' experiences. Maybe I can learn something that will get me back on the path to success.

First time I started trading was about four years ago. I became the Investools student and learned option trading. I did paper trading first month and had a excellent performance, so I started with real money. Guess what? You are right. I lost quite bit which became good lesson for me. However, good lesson kept going on again, and again, and again,,,. I changed my strategy from swing trade to safer strategy which is option spread. However, good lesson didn't end.

One day, my wife asked me why I am looking at the monitor all the time and doing nothing. Because the strategy I tried was long term, I had nothing to do. She made a good point. Instead of wasting time to look at monitor all the time, I started learning more about trading which is Day trading.

Now, I am day trading with paper money. One thing I learned why I did lost quite bit is not because of strategies I tried, because of my emotions. To trade right way, I need to know myself. That is a great journey.

My goal of this year is becoming professional day trader who makes $1000 a day.
One of disadvantages of trading is lack of communication that makes me feel lonely, and I sometimes don't know if I do trade right or wrong. That's why I have been looking for a place I can connect to other trader like you guys.

My goal of this year is becoming professional day trader who makes $1000 a day.
One of disadvantages of trading is lack of communication that makes me feel lonely, and I sometimes don't know if I do trade right or wrong. That's why I have been looking for a place I can connect to other trader like you guys.

I am glad to join this forum.

Toshi

Hi Toshi.

Welcome!
Yes trading is a lonely business. About this time I hit a doldrums, having done a lot of work and then things quiet down.
I wish you all the best in achieving your goals!

Just wanted to drop my intro here. Im a thinkorswim member whos mainly trading paper right now because of past failed experiences. I found the site doing a search for pace of tape study that my friend put me on. I dont see it for tos right now but the study alone made staying hee worth the effort. I look forward to learning from some more experienced veterans and someday living my dream as a "real trader". Feel free to message me for any other details. Ill keep a close watch on this site for updates and interesting threads. thanks

Hello Ian
I am in Melbourne and have been doing similar things to you but trading on the sfe200.
My mates and I have developed a very sophisticated analysis and back testing software
It maybe possible we could colaborate and and see if there are any common paths to joint
success. As an aside we are looking to the dax within the next few months
Feel free to contact me
Cheers

mogplus8

Hi All,
I live in Sydney, Australia. I have been learning to trade for about five years now. Only started trading real money about a year ago and did quite well initially. Then somehow things went pear shaped and I did my dough big time.
I use Ninjatrader, and developed a fully automated strategy that worked very well in sim, but seems to not work so well in real money. I was averaging about ten percent per week profit in sim, and doing nearly as well with real money when I first started. That only lasted a few months though, then I had a horror week when I lost fifty percent of my capital. The next week I lost another ten percent. Then I went back to sim to try to work out what went wrong, and I have to say I really don't understand it. I can optimise my system to produce great results for the previous two weeks, but then when I trade it live (in sim) it goes down the gurgler. Feels like backtesting is a waste of time as results don't seem to translate into real performance.

I trade the fdax on a 144 tick chart, one contract (can't afford any more than that...) and yes I do check how the system is going every morning (in my time zone the fdax trades from 4:30pm to 6am). So why didn't I cut my losses in that horror week? Because my trading plan is to let the system trade all week without interference. It had lost and come good in the past, so I figured I should stick to my plan and not panic. Turns out I should have panicked. I'll have to put that into my trading plan so I'll know next time...

Interested in all aspects of trading, and looking forward to reading more about other traders' experiences. Maybe I can learn something that will get me back on the path to success.

Quiting my job to become a full time trader, tomorrow is my last day of working. This will seem to be a totally irrational thing to do to most. I am currently employed in a well paid job and to be frank although I have been struggling to trade profitably for the past 1 year, I have not achieved any signs of profitability.

But for me, this is a now or never point in my life as I do not have any family commitments at the moment. If I have family commitments, I don't think I will be able to justify giving up my stable income for such a risky endeavour.

Just want to say hello.
A bit about myself, ive been trading/learning about trading for about 3 years, have spent a lot of time in front of the screen just watching price and volume, but have and are strugling to put what I see and could possibly trade into some sort of trading plan/ strategy.
I am very interested in the Wyckoff way of trading and a lot of my time has been spent looking into this method and VSA.

I was introduced to trading with the crash of '87. By this time I should be retired from the markets, but alas I am still on my quest. My efforts have been primarily in the equity market, but I have crashed and burned in the futures market back in the '90s'.With a growing frustration with equities, I am making another foray into futures one lotting the ES. I landed on this sight in search of MP and market delta indicators. I have been impressed by the tone of this forum unlike all others. Good fortune to all of you!